Freedom's unmatched power

January 09, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Standing up to those who seek to stifle free speech is a natural impulse. But freedom is quite capable of defending itself.

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Strong currents and blinding silt thwarted divers' attempt on Thursday to find AirAsia Flight 8501's black boxes, which are believed to still be in the recently discovered tail of the crashed plane. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders are crucial to helping determine what caused the jet carrying 162 passengers and crew to vanish on Dec. 28, halfway into a two-hour flight between Surabaya, Indonesia, and Singapore. Three more bodies recovered Thursday raised the total to 43, said Suryadi B. Surpiyadi, a search and rescue operation coordinator.

Dangerously cold air has sent temperatures plummeting into the single digits around the US, with wind chills driving them even lower. Throw in the snow some areas are getting and you've got a bone chilling mix that may also be super messy. School districts from the South to the Northeast and Midwest delayed the start of classes or cancelled school altogether. Wind-chill readings below zero were forecast in such places as Alabama and Asheville, North Carolina, along with a chunk of the Midwest and the Plains. Some areas also are seeing anywhere from a few inches to a foot of snow. Many cities experiencing cold weather have opened warming stations for residents lacking heat. But extra care is being taken to protect the homeless. In New Jersey, some officials have empowered law enforcement to move homeless people off the streets and into shelters.

Long lines formed in the Sri Lankan capital Thursday and voter turnout was heavy in the country's Tamil heartland as President Mahinda Rajapaksa faced his toughest electoral challenge in years, with a former ally trying to unseat the leader who crushed a brutal Tamil insurgency and amassed immense power for himself and his family. Some voters were prevented from casting ballots in the Tamil-dominated north, according to the Center for Monitoring Election Violence, and there were a handful of incidents of isolated violence, but no injuries were reported. Results were expected to be announced Friday.

A former FBI director hired to look into how the NFL pursued evidence in the Ray Rice abuse case says the league should have investigated more thoroughly before it initially punished the player. "The NFL should have done more with the information it had and should have taken additional steps to obtain all available information about the Feb. 15 incident," Robert S. Mueller III said in a statement after releasing his report. Mueller said he can find no evidence the league received the video showing Rice striking his fiancee in a casino elevator before it was published online in September. A law enforcement official showed The Associated Press videos of the incident and said he mailed a DVD to NFL headquarters in April.

Major powers trying to resolve the conflict in Ukraine are working to set up a possible meeting in Kazakhstan, but it remains unclear whether it will happen and it won't resolve the crisis overnight if it does, Germany's leader said Thursday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in late December that he planned to meet Jan. 15 in Astana, the Kazakh capital, with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian and French presidents. However, German and other officials haven't confirmed the plan. The four countries' foreign ministers are working on a "possible meeting in Astana" but more talks are needed over the coming days before it is clear whether it can go ahead, Merkel said after meeting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Foie gras is back on the menu in California, after a federal judge on Wednesday struck down the state's controversial law banning the production and sale of the culinary delicacy that comes from the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed corn. While some California chefs planned to celebrate the return of fatty duck liver, animal rights activists said the state's hard-fought foie gras battle was far from over.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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